Faerie Story
by Shyaway
Summary: There is only one more story to tell about Captain Jack Sparrow ... but that story will never end.


Pirates? You want to hear a story about pirates? There ain't many of us left since the old governor and the new young lord put us to flight. It's been a long time since there were many of us at all. The stories have thinned out. What kind of story be you wanting to hear? 

A ghost story. Aye, that's fittin'. These islands are home to many secrets, and spirits. The pirates have gone, but their ghosts remain, theirs and others besides. Maybe those others were always here and we just drowned 'em out for a time. Tortuga's so quiet now. If you listen hard enough, you can hear the ones that were here before us, and those that will be here always.

Who are they? Well … look, here's some more as want to listen. Pull up a chair, there's room for all.

I'll start with one you'll have heard of. There is a ship that sails hereabouts, a ship of death, some say. Her captain ran afoul of some great power, and now he sails his ship in these waters until doomsday.

The_ Flying Dutchman_? No. No, no. You're getting your legendary pirate ships mixed up. Are you new to these parts? Thought so.

Aye, Daniel, you've hit it. The _Black Pearl_.

She sails only at night, almost invisible against the dark skies and sea, so you feel the chill before you see her. When the moon is full, you can see her famed captain. Standing at the wheel, usually. Sometimes in the bow or the rigging. Always alone, no crew on board. You heard why that is?

The crew were cursed? Well … 'tis true, they were. But that was a long time ago, and the curse was lifted a year and a day before the sinking of the _Pearl_.

This is how it was. The old governor would have given half the kingdom, if he could, and his daughter's hand in marriage, to the man who could rid these waters of pirates. Especially that pirate, and that ship. Together they carried out the most daring raids anyone had ever heard of, and they took away great prizes. Jewels and gold and more than just money. The governor ordered the king's men after him, but the law could not touch that man. True, many a time they _almost_ caught him, but always he slipped through their fingers – or sometimes out of the noose.

Anyway, this great captain had a run-in with another of the powers of the sea. Had to be that way – there's no power on land could have taken him down. He was a man of the sea and could only be taken by his own element.

Well, one day, a long time ago, this man of the sea heard tell of a beautiful black ship with black sails and a figurehead in the form of an angel. He'd been pirating for some years but he had never yet had his own vessel. Something stirred in him when he heard about this one. He wanted this ship, and none other, for his own. What's more, he knew he was meant to have her. He knew that with this ship, he could become a great captain of infamy and renown. The only problem was that the ship had sunk many years ago and lay under the seaweeded waters of the Sargasso Sea. The sea had taken her. So he asked that the sea give her up, to him.

It wasn't the wild and treacherous waters that answered his wish. It was Davy Jones, who sails the seven seas under his own curse, picking up dying sailors in the _Flying Dutchman_ and giving them the choice of serving a hundred years before the mast, or dying there and then. He has immense powers over the ocean, and he could give our hero what he wanted. But there was a price, as there always is. In return for raising this ship, he said that after thirteen years, the man must give up his soul and take his turn serving a century on the _Flying Dutchman_.

And our man of the sea said yes.

The ship was raised, and became the _Black Pearl_, and the man who had searched for her became Captain Jack Sparrow, and for a time he lived happily; the _Pearl_ was everything he had hoped. With her and his crew he did become a feared and famous pirate. Of course it could not last. His crew were pirates of the worst sort, and one night when the lure of gold became too much for them, they mutinied. The first mate became captain. Jack was marooned and left to die and had to start his search for the _Pearl _all over again. But that's another story. After ten years he got her back and he prospered in fame and fortune once more.

Then Davy Jones came for him.

Ah, Jack tried every trick he knew, and that was many, to avoid settling his debt, but at the end he saw that there was nothing for it; he had to make the same choice as thousands of sailors before him: to serve on the _Dutchman_ or die.

There was nothing he prized above freedom, not even his life. He chose death. A glorious death, going down with his ship, fighting the monster Jones had sent to take him.

It's true. I saw it. You see … the _Pearl _was my ship. I was her first mate, once upon a time.

_No_. I may have left him and her on that terrible day, but I'm _no mutineer_. That was the first mate before me. Never met him but the once, and that was more than enough.

Yes, I left. We all left, left him to face the beast alone. I saw the ship sink and I felt … I was racked by guilt, for months, years. Until the sightings started, and the stories flowed in. At night other ships would see her, the _Pearl_, and sometimes … they saw him as well. The details were different from tale to tale, you know how it is with sailors, but there was one thing they all agreed on. Whether he was at the helm or in the rigging or the bow or with his hat or without it … he was always happy. Smiling. Even laughing.

How could that be, when his crew had abandoned him and he had been killed by the Kraken? Well, he always did love to sail more than anything else. Gold, rum, women – he enjoyed them all, yet what he wanted most was _freedom _and he found it in sailing, in the ship he had given his soul for.

I'll warrant he would not set foot on land again, if he could. His name, and that of the _Black Pearl_, live on in their legend. He is chasing the horizon, forever. It's what he wanted.

And they say it pisses Davy Jones off no end.


End file.
